Last week, China seized the opportunity of its celebration of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War to celebrate some other dubious things. It was not just the victory of the Chinese Liberation Army over the Japanese imperialists in the World War. It was also...
Chidi Amuta
Seven years ago, in 2018, my good friend and former Dean of Law at the University of Ghana at Legon, Professor Raymond Atuguba, undertook a path-breaking study which sought “to move away from the perception that Justices of the Supreme Court dispense justice impartially under a constitutional democracy and reflect on...
A self -anointed select pack of northern political hounds has found a favourite seasonal mascot for each election cycle. Former president Goodluck Jonathan has managed to find repetitive mention in each election cycle. Hardly any presidential election cycle passes without a loud speculation of Jonathan as a possible candidate....
There is something ultimately futile about desiring an alternative society without knowing what exactly it is. A restless society wracked by adversity to seek an alternative ethos is a fertile ground for reform or even revolution. But a revolutionary fertile ground without a national consensus is a recipe for...
Midway into a rather routine and very tepid presidency, President Bola Tinubu is caught in strange identity crisis. Politicians from across the nation are asking the president to define whose leader he really is. The general public is equally embarrassed by what many see as an “anyhow “ government:...
Nigeria’s 2027 presidential election will be a nasty duel between two chaotic coalitions of politicians. Both coalitions are curiously fueled by fear. For the APC ruling coalition, it is the fear of being challenged and possibly thrown out of power. It is that fear and its insecurity that fueled the drift...
A popular fiction has been normalized and consecrated into a national myth. Everybody believes it. No one questions a myth. It is often said that when a lie gets repeated ever so often, it assumes the status of a truth. Everyone mouths it, repeats it endlessly to a point...
The Nigerian governance road show rolled into Benue state earlier this week. The president and a motley collection of officialdom rolled into the state to see why so many innocent people are dying unnecessary deaths in the hands of nameless killers. As it turns out, the president and his...
President Tinubu and his squad have been observing their mid term. I would not exactly say they have been celebrating as they were reluctant to roll out the red carpets and call in the clowns of ceremony. Instead, the presidency has caused an elaborate avalanche of Power Point presentations...
The APC as the ruling party has developed a rather curious sense of comedy. It is in a way futuristic and steps ahead of the country over which it rules. From the utterances of its chief priests and prime pontiffs, it has already held the next presidential elections a...
When Donald Trump first peeped into the Presidential wagon to say he wanted to run, the reception was mixed. America was united nonetheless by what we can call ‘Washington fatigue.’ People were tired of the bureaucratic gridlock, the diplomatic rigmarole and the congressional multi speak that yielded little or...
The Tinubu presidency has shown utter disrespect for Nigerians. It is above all insensitive to the suffering and hardship of most Nigerians. Instead of rendering a sensible mid term account of its mandate, the administration is celebrating the onset of the 2027 presidential election race. A clear two years...
For the better part of the last decade and half, Nigeria’s national security status has come to be measured by human casualties. Hardly any day passes without the news headlines featuring stories of gory mass murders and senseless killings. When such news breaks, the question is usually about the...
In recent weeks, we seem to have been wrestling with the very idea of democracy. After all, our political system has passed through the Westminster parliamentary system and over three decades of the Washington type presidential system. There is a prolonged assumption that we are indeed a thriving democracy...
Even after three decades of his untidy retreat to his Minna hometown, Babangida never forget the ‘public’ debts he owed to Nigerians. He owed Nigerian history an expose on his turbulent leadership . He owed the Nigerian populace an insight into his personal enigma and enduring charisma. He also...
Barely mid way into his four-year tenure, President Tinubu has scored a contradictory political victory. He has succeeded in getting the political barometer of the nation to swing towards preparations for 2027 instead of pressuring him to deliver on the promises he and his party made in 2023. In...
An unwritten paradox has defined the United States up to this moment. It is the only country loved by most of those who have never set foot on its soil. It is also the one nation most despised by many who have not visited it. Loved and hated in...
Barely one week into his refurbished presidential tenure, America’s Donald Trump seems poised to set new precedents in the model of the Presidency as the pinnacle of America’s democracy. An elected president of a republic is strutting and pronouncing like an emperor. Ordinarily, an American king would be a...
Our presidential political calendar indicates May 2025 as the mid-term of the current presidential tenure. Every May 29th is some form of birthday for our democracy. Next May is mid-term. Mid-term is wake up time, a rude reminder that time is ticking and that what began as a ceremony of...
Frances’s major military base in Cote d’Ivoire is billed to close down at the end of this month. The long -standing base, Port Bouet, is to be rid of its French troop occupants and is to be renamed General Quattara Thomas d’Aquinn base after an indigenous military figure. No...